James and Derwent

I am attending York, like many others in a short while. Studying History, I was placed into James, and I like how things are going. However, I constantly hear about Derwent's better location and social life. As someone who likes that sort of thing, would it really be missing out on too much? I might consider putting up a room swap advert for it if that's the case. I'm hoping to get some advice on how good of colleges both James and Derwent, perhaps so I can cool any doubts about my current one.

Thank you!

Reply 1

BlueEyedGirl_

Nope - this is one of those stereotypes that just hasn’t died out, and stems from really two things: 1) when Derwent was the only college to have their own bar not run by the student union and 2) the fact that Derwent is the 2nd largest college.

Every college has a good social life as long as you put yourself out there, talk to people and say yes to things. To be totally honest, I think James and Derwent are very alike in terms of the actual accommodation so there’s really nothing to be gained from switching.

So I would stick with James and just make the most of the opportunities available to you - remember, social life won’t just be based around your college, but course and societies too (although I’m admittedly not up to date with how COVID will affect those).

University of York

York

Reply 2

historynerd47

Agree with the above comment, all colleges are very similar social wise and it's far more dependent on putting yourself out there etc. Also, I'm going into my second year of history at York, hope you enjoy the course! :smile: